Kamala’s celebrity campaign giveaway

Vice President Kamala Harris had a notable popularity problem when she began her presidential run. In the 2020 cycle, she dropped out before voters ever cast their ballots because almost no one supported her despite a massive fundraising debut. She spent much of President Joe Biden’s presidency being more unpopular than Biden and the most unpopular vice president since vice president popularity was first polled. She managed to become the Democratic nominee for president without anyone voting for her in 2020 or 2024.

Harris was unpopular, uncharismatic, and overall, simply not good at politics unless she was launching scripted attacks against passive subjects of a given Senate panel. So, she needed something to try and endear herself to voters. As is the instinct of the Democratic Party, Harris turned to celebrity endorsers, relying on the popularity of Oprah Winfrey, Taylor Swift, LeBron James, and others to provide any sort of personality to her campaign.

This all came at a cost, though. Just as in 2020, Harris had fundraising success, bringing in more than a billion dollars. Much of that money went toward paying celebrities to be part of her campaign. Harris paid a million dollars to Winfrey’s Harpo Productions for a town hall with Winfrey herself. That money went to “production costs” for the company, of which Winfrey is the CEO and chairwoman.

Harris and her team spent millions of dollars on concerts, recruiting Christina Aguilera, Jon Bon Jovi, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and 2 Chainz, among others. The campaign was so fast and loose with fundraised concert cash that it actually had to cancel one concert with Alanis Morissette due to the stacking up costs, likely because Harris’s under-30 staffers didn’t know who Morissette was.

Harris’s campaign also reportedly spent six figures building a set for her interview on the podcast Call Her Daddy, which appealed almost exclusively to people such as her under-30 staffers over the span of 40 minutes. Not one to entirely neglect the “old heads,” Harris’s campaign also pushed $500,000 to Al Sharpton’s nonprofit organization just weeks before Sharpton’s friendly interview with Harris. From the women’s sex podcaster to the antisemitic “civil rights activist” who was already washed up when he ran for president back in 2004, Harris was ready to throw money at every “celebrity” her team could name. (Except, apparently, Alanis Morissette).

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Believe it or not, voters were a little more concerned with the price of groceries than with what rapper Cardi B thought about Harris or President-elect Donald Trump. Harris burned through that money on celebrity appearances and concerts that didn’t move the needle and left the campaign $20 million in debt. Despite all those shiny celebrity toys, voters didn’t want to be Harris’s friends. Now, her campaign is broke.

This may have been a disaster for everyone involved (except for the celebrities and their production companies who got big paydays thanks to Democratic donations), but everything happens for a reason. When Harris launches her 2026 run for governor of California, she will have the support of the all-important Hollywood celebrity base. Who will be laughing then?